Blank Canvas
by Basikilos
Summary: After Red's defeat of Royce Bracket, Cloudbank is a blank canvas and the Transistor her paintbrush. But she has no desire to paint, not in the lifeless husk that Cloudbank has become. When Red discovers that there is a way to restore those who have been integrated into the Transistor, she embarks on a journey to save the city that she loves. Spoilers here, so beware!
1. Eject()

The Transistor is halfway to Red's chest when she hears his soft, lilting, voice.

"What if…" he begins, then falters. "What if I told you there was a way to undo the Process. Remake Cloudbank."

The Transistor comes to a dead stop, inches from her body.

In the background, somewhere, Boxer breathes a sigh of relief. "Don't you ever scare me like that again, Red. For a second I thought you really were going to – " She relegates him to the back of her mind, concentrating instead on the voice of the man that she has just sentenced to an eternity in the Transistor.

"So you're listening." Ever one to state the obvious, Bracket goes on. "I wasn't sure if you would be able to hear me, but as you are my jailor I do suppose that we share a certain bond."

She hates the way he says it - without even a trace of accusation or resentment.

"I see what you're thinking. No, I am not lying. I am an engineer. I think of all the possibilities, and there is always, _always_, a backdoor in my design. I did not create the Transistor, but I did do a certain amount of…tinkering, shall we say."

Her mind races furiously. Perhaps there really is a way to save Cloudbank. To save everyone. But…how?

"So many questions, so little time," Bracket's voice echoes in her ears. "I believe the easiest way for you to ascertain if I am telling you the truth is to go and find the function for yourself. Bracket Towers. I believe you've already overridden the firewall, so it should be no problem."

Bracket towers it is, then. She sets off, stopping at the OVC terminals to drop Boxer a line. For some reason, he can't hear anything that Bracket is saying, even though they're both trapped in the same virtual world.

"Hey. Hey. Red, where are we going? Thought we were done with that place. The city's all yours now." He sounds confused. She doesn't blame him.

Spotting a terminal, she types quickly, fingers flicking over the keyboard. "Bracket's in here. Says there's a way to get you out."

"He's lying. You know how the Camerata are. They're liars!" Boxer's mad. She knows how his grudge against the Camerata runs deep.

She deletes the previous sentence, and the next one is types in a matter of seconds. "But why would he lie?"

"I don't know, Red. I don't trust him. Whatever he tells you, be careful, okay?"

She nods twice and turns off the OVC terminal. Up ahead, Bracket Towers beckons, lights glowing brightly.

* * *

Grant and Asher are still there when Red arrives.

Of course they're still here, she berates herself. Why would they move? They're dead. She sets the Transistor down, waits for further instructions.

"So, we're here." Boxer echoes her thoughts. "What now?"

"See that screen on my desk?" Bracket asks. "Just put the Transistor through it. The function I was working on is on there. All you've got to do is insert the Transistor it in and it will automatically download. You must first enable it at an access point. I've never actually gotten the opportunity to test drive it, so there might be a few…bugs," he adds.

She scrolls through the function a little bit first, just to make sure it's not some sort of self-destruct function. All computer jargon. But from what she can make out, it looks like Bracket's telling the truth.

"There's an access point right outside of this rooftop," Bracket remarks, unhelpfully. She just passed by it, of course she remembers that it's there.

She loads up the control screen on the Transistor, and there it is – Eject(). She switches out Breach() for it, and on second thought, disables most of her functions, keeping Jaunt() and Cull(). It's not like she'll be needing them anymore, but she'll keep them loaded. Just in case of trouble. She takes a deep breath, readying herself. Time to head back to Boxer.

* * *

Disclaimer: Transistor and its characters all belong to Supergiant Games. I can only dream of creating something so beautiful. Also, this idea isn't mine – I got it after reading a brilliant review of Transistor. I can't remember who wrote it, so if anyone could tell me so I could give them credit for it, that'd be awesome :)


	2. Eject(Royce Bracket)

"Wait." Bracket's voice echoes in her ears. She ignores it. Boxer first.

"You'll find it out the hard way," he notes, "or you can find it out from me."

She stops for a few seconds, gives him a chance to say whatever he wants to say. Who knows, it might be useful.

"Eject() can only eject the function files in the order that you've integrated them. It works like a stack. Last one in, first one out."

She finds an OVC terminal, fingers moving in a quick staccato. "What if I don't do it in order?"

"What are you talking about?" Boxer's been pretty quiet this entire time, but he pipes up now. There's a brief moment of silence, then, "Oh. You're talking to _him_. Be careful, Red. I still don't trust him."

"It won't work," Royce replies. "You can try it on the Kendrells, but I'll tell you right now – the function will fail. I was the last integrated, so I must be the first to leave."

She decides to try it out on the Kendrells anyway. They're not far, and besides, Bracket might attempt to reclaim the Transistor once he gets out. There's nothing to lose from testing out Eject() on Asher.

True to form, the moment she tries to use it on his lifeless body, the Transistor spits out an error message.

"Most recently integrated function must be ejected first. 'Asher Kendrell, Void()' function file status: 2nd in line. 1st function file in line: 'Royce Bracket, Flood()'."

"Looks like Bracket's telling the truth," Boxer whispers hoarsely. "Guess it's time for us to head back to the Cradle. Retrace our steps."

She nods resolutely, leaves the fallen figures of the Kendrells behind, and heads towards Fairview.

* * *

Red does _not_ like Fairview.

It's a twisted, confusing, place. Nothing makes sense, and laws of physics are somehow…suspended. She jaunts away, moving quickly towards the Cradle. There, she finds a smoldering body, almost unrecognizable save for his characteristic white lab coat. _Bracket_.

He shakily draws a deep breath.

"Sounds like he can't always be objectively emotionless," she thinks grimly. She inserts the Transistor into Bracket's still body, preparing to use Eject().

"Hold on!" Bracket's voice stops her in her tracks for the second time today. "Like I said, I never had the chance to test out Eject(). Be prepared. We know that the Transistor and the Process are somehow irrevocably linked. Ejecting me may lead to the creation of thousands more Process."

There's an OVC terminal nearby. "Why are you telling me all of this?" she types. "Didn't you try to kill me not ten hours ago?"

"Not kill you, _integrate_ you," he replies, stressing the word. "And that was then. This is now. I want to give you a fair warning so that you know what you might be up against."

"Thanks," she types, wishing that there were a way of making her sarcasm more evident through the flashing screen. She returns to his body, puts the Transistor through his chest, and uses Eject().

There is a blinding flash of white light.

* * *

Red is in the Transistor once more, facing an irate and wholly processed Royce Bracket. The blade she clutches in her hands is voiceless, no longer giving her advice or the occasional witty remark. She circles him warily, wondering if his attack pattern will be identical to Sybil's.

But Royce doesn't attack her. Instead, he claps his hands, and suddenly there are a dozen Process surrounding him.

Fetch, Jerks, Creeps, Bad Cells, and Youngladies. She curses quietly beneath her breath. At least she still has Cull(). She disposes of them quickly, just about perfectly using up two Turns(). She's had practice.

Process Bracket shudders violently, and five storm spheres materialize at his side. They drift towards her, crackling with malicious intent. She dodges them cleverly with a Jaunt() and culls Bracket twice, sending him flying into the air. Bracket's Process helpers spawn once more, and not for the first time, she wishes that she could have equipped her favorite combo – Mask() and Switch(). Hindsight really is 20/20, she gripes to herself.

After slogging through the waves of opponents, Red manages to defeat Processed Bracket. Lying on the ground, he flickers twice. The world fades away and Red finds herself in Cloudbank once more, the Transistor grasped firmly in her hands. She spins around, readying herself for another surprise.

"Lost you there for a minute," Boxer remarks. "Did it work?"

Red hugs the sword tightly to her chest and shrugs her shoulders, shaking her head. Carefully, she walks closer to Bracket. He stirs, and his eyes open. A lopsided grin spreads across his stoic features and he clears his throat – once, twice. "As I told you," he says, spreading his arms out wide with a knowing glance, "I always build a backdoor."


	3. Eject(Asher Kendrell)

"Red," Boxer whispers as she sprints across the abandoned city, visiting Bracket Towers once more for the third time that night. The owner of said Towers was by her side, but only she could hear her Boxer's voice. "Do you remember how we first met?"

She nods, the Transistor clutched tightly within her grasp. _How could I ever forget?_

* * *

She had been standing in the empty set, eyes closed, humming to herself. She had always loved how sound echoed through the bare room, cutting through silence. She hummed a final note, a sad, sweet melody that she'd come up with on the spot – and let her voice taper off into nothingness.

Then, suddenly, applause. "You know, you should really consider singing in front of an audience." The suggestion came from stage left, and her eyelids flew open as she tried to pinpoint its source. She thought that she had been alone, but clearly, she had been wrong. A flutter of black fabric – a flash of a gold triangle – and she glimpsed him. Originally partly obscured by the curtain, he began walking towards her.

She looked for an escape route, eyes darting back and forth as she tried to gauge how much of a threat this man was. He extended a hand wrapped in bandages towards her.

"The name's Boxer. I was just passing by and couldn't help but stop to listen. You know, you don't have to sing to an empty set. Voice like yours, I'm pretty sure you could fill up all these seats."

Red could only stare at him speechlessly. And just like that, he walked away. Cloudbank was a big city, and she hadn't been able to find out anything about him or where he'd come from. Some days, when she practiced at the empty set, she hoped that he would come back. See how far she was getting, how well her albums were starting sell.

And a year later, after "We All Become" and Sybil Reisz had skyrocketed her to fame, Red still found herself looking for that jacket of his. And one day, she found it.

"Told you that you'd be able to fill up all the seats," he had grinned at her when she found him after her set. "Want to go to Junction Jan's? My treat."

After that, it was all history. The Process, the Camerata, the Transistor, the Cradle, and Eject().

* * *

"Just don't forget about me," he asks, simply. They're outside of Bracket Towers now, next to an OVC Terminal.

"What are you talking about?" she types rapidly, adding a sidenote – "No, not you, Bracket."

"I don't know," Boxer replies. "Sometimes I feel like I'm not real anymore. Like I'm exactly what Grant Kendrell called all of us trapped in the Transistor – traces. We're just traces of the people we used to be, signals left behind by a source that has been long ago extinguished."

"Stop thinking like that," she types fiercely. "Look at Bracket. Look at what the function did him. He's out now, isn't he? So I'm going to get you out of there, or I'm going to die trying."

"Please," Boxer answers, "Don't say that. I love you, Red, but there's something I've done that might keep me here forever. So for your sake, and for mine, don't make that promise because I don't want to see you keep it."

Her fingers come to an abrupt stop, bewildered. She collects her thoughts, places a finger on a key, then stops once more. "We'll cross that bridge when we get there," she reasons. Maybe Boxer is legitimately concerned. But maybe she'll be able to eject him without a hitch. No sense in worrying about it now.

She turns to Bracket and resumes typing once more, a steely glint in her eye. "And you. We need to talk before anything else gets done. What are you going to do now that I'm restoring Cloudbank?"

He shrugs offhandedly. "I thought I could, well, atone for my sins. For how much I've wronged this city and her citizens."

"Really?" She shoots him a skeptical glance. "Not going to recreate the Camerata, wrest the Transistor from me, get the Process back on your side, and continue with your grand plans?"

"I think," Bracket vacillates. "I think you need to have a little more faith in us. Perhaps, perhaps we are truly remorseful for our actions. Though I can only speak for myself, I know for a fact that Grant and Asher regretted what they had done."

"The last time I had faith in one of you," she retorts, thinking of Sybil, "I lost my voice, my city, and the love of my life in the same night."

"You flatter me," Boxer laughs lightly in her ear, "but I'm still here, remember?"

She ignores him. "So pardon me if I would like to have some proof, some unequivocal evidence, that you will not destroy this city the moment I eject all the members of the Camerata."

"Well," Bracket shrugs, "I suppose you will have to do without it. It is pointless, I say, pointless, to try to find irrefutable proof. All one can do is find more evidence that either supports or rejects a hypothesis. And either way, you have no other options. If you would like to restore the other citizens of Cloudbank, you have no choice but to eject the remaining past members of the Camerata first."

She grimaces. It's true, what Bracket has said. She has no other choices. Unless…unless there was a way that she could incapacitate the Camerata so that they would be able to face justice once the rest of Cloudbank returned. Quickly, she formulates a plan.

First, since she was here, she would eject Asher and Grant. Even if they tried to overpower her and take the Transistor back, she was a Superuser of level 15. She doubted that they would be able to best her, especially since she had the help of Turn(). Afterwards, she would find a backdoor, lock them inside, and seal off the entrance until she returned Cloudbank to its former glory. Luna would watch them well and keep them from escaping.

Decision made, she plunges the Transistor into Asher's chest without hesitation. The message box appears above his head, and she selects Eject(). She's already augmented her functions list with a few more useful ones – in addition to Cull(), Red has equipped Mask() upgraded with Switch(), swapped out Jaunt() for Breach(), and added Crash().

As the world fades to white, she feels another pair of hands grab the Transistor, covering hers. Before she can react, Cloudbank disappears and the all-too-familiar countryside of the Transistor appears. And Royce Bracket stands next to her, smiling with a self-satisfied curve to his lips.

* * *

A/N: I know Asher technically is still in the Transistor, but I wanted to keep the chapter names somewhat consistent.


	4. Eject(Grant Kendrell)

Not for the first time, Red wishes she could speak. Instead, she glares at him incriminatingly, arms folded, waiting for an explanation.

He shrugs. "I was curious."

There's no time for this now, she realizes as she sees a Processed Asher making its way towards them. A darkly pulsing sphere surrounds him, enveloping everything in a four foot-radius with a blood-red color. For some reason, Red gets the idea that entering that sphere would be a bad idea. A very, _very_, bad idea.

She engages Turn(), runs to Asher and Crashes him once. But there's not enough planning time left in Turn(), and she can't escape the sphere with her remaining moves. There's not much she can do – she had started out at the very edge of his Void(), and it looked as though she wouldn't be able to inflict damage on him without invariably taking some damage from the sphere. She would have to take her chances.

Red takes a deep breath, closes her eyes, and executes the Turn().

Her lungs are on fire. Her vision bleeds, a hazy veil of scarlet. Red struggles through the thick, depressive air, trying to move her leaden limbs. Desperately, she tries to begin Turn(), but finds that she cannot. Processed Asher continues walking closer to her, bright red eyes flashing relentlessly. Soon, he is standing face to face with her. His smooth, white, face with its alien features screams at her to get away, to run, but Red is incapable of movement. She can only stand and stare helplessly, feeling her life drain away. She cannot wrench her eyes away from his blank ones, and she recoils with horror from their soulless stare.

And suddenly, the Void() breaks.

Red seizes the opportunity and uses Turn(), running as far away from the creature as she possibly can. On her way, she notices an innocuous storm sphere glittering with malicious sparks by Asher's side. So that was what had caused the disturbance in the Void(). She hates feeling indebted to Bracket, but there is no doubt about it. The man had just saved her life.

* * *

Red feels as though she's spent her entire life inside the Transistor, firing off Breach() every few seconds, running from the terrifying blood-red orb. But together, with Bracket's Flood() and Red's careful aiming of Breach(), they finally manage to bring down Asher Kendrell.

Cloudbank reappears around them, and Boxer growls angrily.

"What did he do to you, Red? What the hell did he do?"

Red shakes her head.

_Nothing. He saved my life._

Boxer gets the message, quieting instantly. On the ground, Asher moans in pain, rolling over on his side. His eyes open to see an unresponsive Grant. He quickly shifts his gaze to Red and Royce, communicating an unspoken question.

"Remember the backdoor function?" Bracket prompts. "The backdoor, that I made. Eject(), is what I named it. That's right. And it works."

"Well, hurry up and use it on Grant," Asher replies urgently. "I don't care _how_ it works, just let him out of there. I can hear _his_ voice…coming from there." His eyes flicker towards the Transistor clutched in Red's hands.

She hesitates, wondering if she would be able to repel the Kendrells and Bracket, should they turn on her after Grant is ejected. At the same time, a translucent figure glitches through the air and kneels by Asher, whispering words that only he can hear.

"I said, do it now!" He elbows Bracket aside and seizes the Transistor, plunging it into Grant's chest. Red almost lets go of the Transistor – Boxer gasps in pain – but her grip holds, and she finds herself absorbed into the Transistor along with Asher.

* * *

It's the second time that this has happened.

Red glares at a dazed Asher, who in turn stares blankly at Processed Grant.

"Wha-what's happened to him?" he trails off, question directed towards nobody in particular. "Grant…" He shakily extends an arm towards the figure in the distance that sparkles with malicious intent.

"Don't go one step further," Red thinks furiously. But Asher is no Boxer, and he can't read her mind. Not for the first time, she wishes she could speak. He walks closer towards Grant, and Red engages Turn(), freezing Time – and Asher – in their tracks. Grant's file function had been Tap(), so she could only assume that whatever attacks he had would confer a life-stealing effect. Red maps a path towards Grant, inputs Cull(), and maps an escape route to a safe distance away. She curses inwardly as she realizes that Asher may still approach Processed Grant after her Turn() is executed. But there's no helping it. If he wants to court death, she can't stop him.

She executes the Turn(), and several things happen all at once.

Processed Grant releases an inhuman scream as he is Culled. At the same moment, Asher recoils away from the creature, finally realizing that there is absolutely no remaining essence of Grant Kendrell within the Process that bears his appearance. Red cringes as with every hit to the Processed Grant that she executes, life-stealing Bad Cells fall out from his body. She has to end this, and she has to end it quickly. Luckily, she's equipped Help() as a passive function.

The next Turn() she engages, Red becomes a SuperUser. Nerves tingling with fiery electrical impulses, she goes to Grant and uses Kill().

In a few short seconds, the battle is over, and the country fades away.


End file.
